


Nobody Remembers That Barry Is A Forensic Scientist

by closette



Category: DCU, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 03:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closette/pseuds/closette
Summary: Oliver and Barry arrive for monitor duty to find ...something, happening. Oliver freaks out, and Barry realizes that he really is a good detective.





	Nobody Remembers That Barry Is A Forensic Scientist

Barry grabs a cookie from the Watchtower cafeteria before zooming to the Womb for monitor duty. 

He stops abruptly a few feet before the door to stand beside Oliver.

"What's up buddy?" he says as he stops, and Oliver doesn't even flinch, but he does make a shushing motion. It's a testament to how long they've all been working together that no one's surprised by Barry anymore.

"I don't wanna go in there man, feels like stepping into a cage fight buck-naked." Oliver whispers to him.

Barry slowly peeks inside. It was Clark and Bruce's shift, and he's expecting violent arguing, veins protruding from necks, arm-waving, shouting... and then whatever Bruce will do. Or maybe something really physical, like a Kryptonite-edged batarang lodged in someone's Kryptonian chest while the arm attached to the chest was choking black Kevlar.

He peeks inside and finds, well, nothing he was expecting. But there's... something.

It's not that they're doing a _thing_ to the other. Just that there's a weird tension in the air, palpable because they look like they're ignoring the other completely. No acknowledgement of the other's presence in any way. It's freaking Oliver out because it's just _wrong._

You see, Bruce and Clark are always _together_, when they're in the same space. When you see them, you get the sense of a cohesive unit. Like, one is always another one's backup. A Captain and his First Mate. Or the President and the Vice President. You'd have a long discussion about who is who, and personally Barry thinks it's a King with a shadow Advisor behind him that's really controlling everything from behind the charismatic figurehead _but_ _the_ _point_ _is_... they're macaroni and cheese, screw and screwdriver, left shoe and right shoe. They just work together, they used to have their own nickname - World's Finest, they used to call them.

But now, now, Bruce is turned away from Clark, his body no longer angled slightly towards him, like he always does. Usually he's slightly aware of Clark whenever he's in his periphery, and tilts his body towards the direction of the distraction accordingly. Now though, Bruce is doing a very, very convincing impression that nobody is in the room with him, which is the other extreme end of how they usually are. He's going about the Womb as if he's alone.

Clark was, well, not exactly doing the same thing. But he's just sitting, unnaturally still, in a way that only someone with his fine muscle control can pull. As immovable as the heaviest statue, staring at a fixed spot away from Bruce, unblinking.

It was so eerie and plain wrong.

"What do we do Ollie? Should we just wait until they leave?" 

Oliver rubs the back of his head, frustrated. Which surprises Barry a bit. He didn't think Oliver was the type to care about personal fights between his friends, but then again, it's always a mistake to make assumptions about the Green Arrow. "Well, what did you do when your mom and dad fought, when you were a kid?"

Barry muffles a chuckle behind his hand. "Seriously? That's the metaphor we're going for?"

Oliver looks at him seriously. "Well, one of them disciplines and is strict with us, then the other one smooths over the tension and is the caring one, so what does that sound to you?" 

"What's Diana then?"

"The cool aunt who drops by then takes us to the mall, her treat."

"Fair points."

Oliver continues, still keeping his voice to a whisper. "Anyway, we can't have mom and dad fight for long, the house would get this weird tension that makes the kids feel weird, then one of us would probably start drinking or dating someone way older than us or whatever it is kids do when they act out."

Barry stares at him. "There's a lot to unpack there but I'm going to focus on the gist of what you said. How do we go about this?"

His friend stares into the room. "Well, based on how I dealt with my parents, we hide in our room until they remember that they're the adults in the house and get over themselves." 

"Buddy, we can't hide in our quarters. Aside from the obvious fact that we're grown men, we have the next shift in less than a minute."

"Hmmm." Oliver peers back into the room. "Wait something's happening-" 

Bruce closes the files he was working on and starts walking towards the door, "Arrow, Flash, good evening. I've left some areas of interest open on the screens. Let the League know if the situations escalate and request support if needed."

Oliver blinks, "Uh, thanks Batman, copy that."

Bruce walks past them, "If you'll excuse me, I have an urgent matter to attend to." 

Barry, still wary by the doors, watches as Bruce briskly walks towards the sleeping quarters. Huh, Batman leaving while situations (plural) could still escalate? He really must need to deal with something urgent.

The sound of Bruce walking away seemed to snap Clark out of the rigid pose / focused trance he's been holding, and he braces his hand on the chair to stand. "Hey guys. I should be going too. Uh, good luck with the next shift." 

Barry narrows his eyes on Clark's face. Is that a flush? Did he get angry enough to get red in the face? But then he doesn't look angry. Flustered, is the word.

"Call if you need backup." Clark throws at them as he flies out of the womb in what would be described as a "brisk" manner, a notch below zooming out. Towards the sleeping quarters as well.

Huh, Barry thinks, as the clues come together to form a hypothesis. Would you look at that.

Oliver snorts as he preps the monitors to continue duty. "Hope they keep the damage to a minimum when they duke it out. There are no discounts on floating satellite tower repairs."

"Ollie, how long have you been at the door watching them?"

"Uh, maybe like a second before you arrived. I'm not exactly jumping at the bit for monitor duty."

"Okay, did they look like they sprung apart from each other, when you got to the door?"

Oliver looks over him curiously, "No, I don't think so. Why? You think they were about to get into it before we came?"

Barry laughs. 

**Author's Note:**

> I just watched a bunch of YouTube compilations about Green Arrow in Justice League Unlimited and Justice League Action. I forgot how cool he is in the cartoons. Also JLA is a surprisingly good show!
> 
> Concrit is very welcome. <3


End file.
